The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I came across this collection of memos from the ENHS/ENHP via Mainspring Press. It is an interesting read. It reveals quite a few interesting things, previously unknown to me, such as the final Schuberts and Beethovens being equipped with lateral reproducers to sweeten the selloff. ["Sale of Fisnished Stock"]

I wonder who provided these adapters? I presume they weren't manufactured by Edison. It is also suggested that they were to be prepared to provide lateral adapters free to DD customers who complained.

The Final Days of Edison Record Production

This was a very interesting, but sad article. What did the factory supplied needle [lateral-cut] reproducers look like? I have a generic after-market one, but did Edison make manufacture a branded model?

audiophile102 wrote: Sat Jan 15, 2022 9:56 am This was a very interesting, but sad article. What did the factory supplied needle [lateral-cut] reproducers look like? I have a generic after-market one, but did Edison make manufacture a branded model?

The soundboxes fitted to the P-1 and P-2 needle type portables would have been the obvious choice to use.

"Mr. Sarnoff of R.C.A. announced at meeting few weeks ago that home talking pictures would play large part in future home entertainment which may be subtle warning that Victor is going into film recording."
Interesting...

gunnarthefeisty wrote: Mon Jan 17, 2022 11:31 pm "Mr. Sarnoff of R.C.A. announced at meeting few weeks ago that home talking pictures would play large part in future home entertainment which may be subtle warning that Victor is going into film recording."
Interesting...

David Sarnoff’s 1929 prediction came to be correct in 1965, with the introduction of the Sony CV-2000, which was the first video tape recorder available for home use.

From Wikipedia. This explains Sarnoff's comment. RCA also merged with the Victor Talking Machine Company in January 1929 which made the objects of television and home motion picture film adjunct to radio and sound recordings foremost in Sarnoff's mind. High definition electronic recording of television in the home would only bear fruition in the 1970's.

RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., commonly called RKO Pictures or simply RKO (an abbreviation of Radio-Keith-Orpheum), was an American film production and distribution company that was one of the "Big Five" major film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) theater chain and Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928. RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for the company's sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone. By the mid-1940s, the studio was under the control of investor Floyd Odlum.

I have proof that the Edison Co. did make a lateral reproducer in 1929 to go with its Edisonic and other phonographs. They may have had the Orotone company make them because I have an Oro-Tone Orthophonic type reproducer exactly like the Edison one, but without the cool E and Edison lighting bolts. I took these pics about ten years ago at the Stanton auction.

It's a real beauty!

"On or about 1912 the Edison Industries began to manufacture and sell the disc type of record and from that date to this, as far as I can estimate, it has always been a losing business."

Damn. Talk about a loss leader.

G.

marcapra wrote: Fri Feb 25, 2022 2:12 am I have proof that the Edison Co. did make a lateral reproducer in 1929 to go with its Edisonic and other phonographs.

Thanks for the pictures! It's great to know that the Edison-branded adapters did indeed exist.

Garret: I was surprised at this statement as I seem to recall a document showing several years in the teens where the record division did indeed turn a profit.